Chapter Sixty-One

Iris reappeared with a clipboard. “Okay, so first I want you to introduce the players and do the basic intro for the segment.”

Darcy looked over at Cox and Lassiter. “Natalie, do you want to introduce them?”

Natalie shrugged. “Sure.” She looked at the camera and waited for the signal. But as soon as the camera operator gave her the signal she froze.

Darcy laughed. “Oh my god, you don’t know their names.”

Cox and Lassiter looked horrified for a second before laughing so hard they had to wipe their eyes.

“Carpenter, we were teammates for years!”

Natalie blushed scarlet. “I know your names! I just can’t think of them right now.” She buried her face in her hands, but the tips of her ears were getting redder by the second. “In my defense, when was the last time I called either of you by your first names?”

Darcy had to take deep breaths to compose herself. She held out her hand. “I’m Darcy LaCroix, it’s nice to meet you.”

Cox shook her hand first. “JT Cox.”

“Melissa Lassiter.”

“Melissa! Oh my god, I knew it was an M word.”

Darcy shook her head. “Unbelievable, Carpenter. You were teammates! How did you not know their names?” She looked at the camera. “Please tell me you got all that on tape.”

Natalie waved her hands frantically. “You can’t use that! Oh my god! No!”

The camera operator’s shoulders shook beneath the equipment blocking her face. “Don’t worry. I wasn’t recording.”

JT and Melissa were laughing so hard they each had to grip the rink boards to hold themselves up. “Carpenter, we’ve been teammates for years and you didn’t know my name? Un-fucking-believable.”

Natalie hung her head. “I forgot. I’m sorry. You two are going to aim for my head, aren’t you?”

The players smirked but didn’t answer. After they filmed the introductions, Natalie and Darcy sat on the bench to put on their gear. Darcy had only vague memories of the order she needed to put everything on and quickly realized that she had to put her skates and leg pads on before her chest protector.

Looking to her left, Natalie’s legs looked impossibly skinny underneath her hockey pants. Without shin guards they looked like toothpicks.

Lassiter had to step in and tell Natalie she had her leg pads on the wrong legs, but only after Natalie had put them both on.

“Come on! You could have told me that five minutes ago!”

Coxie laughed. “And miss this high-quality TV? No way.”

“They could have waited until you got on the ice,” Darcy said with a snort. She was rather smug about getting everything on without incident until she tried to put her jersey on and got herself stuck. Her arms wedged themselves into the jersey sleeves and she was trapped. She tried to shimmy out of it and only made it worse. She turned her head to see what was stuck in the back but couldn’t turn far enough to figure it out.

Natalie caught her eye and pointed to the camera. “You better be getting every second of this. Canada’s princess isn’t looking too royal right now.”

Lassiter took pity on her and tugged the back of her jersey free and helped her get everything untwisted.

“Keep talking shit, Carpenter, but you don’t even have both pads on. Not surprising considering how slow your ass is on the ice.” Darcy pulled her mask over her ponytail and glided out onto the ice. She made it a few feet before falling flat on her face.

She rolled over and stared at the ceiling. If the ice could swallow her now, that would be great. She could hear Natalie and the other players laughing their asses off at her. Dear god, she would never live this down as long as she lived.

Cox came into view over her. “Hold on, let me see if there’s something on your skate.” She bent down and checked the runners of Darcy’s skate and held up a small piece of tape.

“Found the culprit.” She put her hand out and pulled Darcy to her feet. She held Darcy’s arm while she got her feet set.

Cox’s face was only a few inches from Darcy’s, making it easy for Darcy to see the deep brown of her eyes and the smattering of freckles across the bridge of her nose.

“Thanks,” Darcy said.

Lassiter banged her stick against the boards to get their attention. “Coxie! For Christ’s sake, she’s not actually a goalie! Quit flirting with the Canuck.”

Cox shrugged.

Natalie barreled onto the ice with the grace of a drunk rhino and bumped Cox on her way by.

Darcy blinked. What was happening? One second, she’s flat on her back after the world’s most embarrassing fall and the next Natalie is pitching a fit because she thinks her teammate was making eyes at her? She’d had less drama in middle school.

Iris called them back over to the bench to explain what they were doing. “Each of you gets a turn in the net. The players are going to shoot the same number of shots at both of you. We were going to do a shootout, but the studio was afraid you might get hurt.”

Natalie glowered at Cox. Darcy fought the urge to laugh. There was no way Natalie could possibly be jealous from something as small as getting helped off her ass. It was absurd. But everything between them had felt absurd since Raquel offered her the job doing commentary. She sighed, grateful her mask made it impossible for anyone to look too closely at her.

She carefully skated over to the net. Goalie skates were almost as bad as the figure skates they’d had to wear. Never had she felt so uncomfortable playing hockey. Raquel really was an evil genius.

Natalie went first. She blocked the first two shots but then fell trying to move in front of the third. She struggled to get up, falling three times as she tried to get her feet under her.

Cox and Lassiter put their hands over their mouths to hide their laughter for the cameras, but it was no use. Finally, Cox glided in to help Natalie get up, but Natalie wouldn’t take her hand.

“You’re being a baby,” Darcy said under her breath. She would’ve helped Natalie but she didn’t want the two of them to end up tangled on the ice in a heap.

Finally, Natalie got to her feet for the next shot. Lassiter waited to be sure she was ready before taking a slap shot that pinged off Natalie’s helmet.

Natalie, stunned, stood still for a few seconds before dropping both gloves and skating after Lassiter with the speed of a penguin on dry land. Lassiter easily evaded her while yelling apologies over her shoulder.

“I didn’t mean to bean you, Carpenter, I swear!”

Darcy looked at the camera operator. “You’re getting this, right?”

The operator gave her a thumbs-up as she turned to follow the former teammates around the rink until Natalie gave up and leaned against the boards.

Darcy’s turn in the net was much less eventful, though she found the entire process baffling. How did goalies do this without finding themselves on their asses after every shot? She finished the segment with a newfound respect for her former teammates and was thankful she’d never had to try to do it in a high-pressure game.

Natalie and Darcy pulled their masks up to sign off. “We want to thank JT Cox and Melissa Lassiter for joining us today.”

“I do not want to thank Lassie for hitting me in the head, though,” Natalie said on the first take, and they had to reshoot it.

“Thanks for having us and be sure to tune in for our game.”

Darcy grinned, thrilled to know she was going to be a part of it. “Yes, please tune in. I’ll see you from the studio. Otherwise, that’s it for Natalie and me. We’ve had a great time showing you how impressive all these athletes are.”

Natalie did a terrible job hiding her emotions. “Yes, thanks for tuning in to watch us make fools out of ourselves every day. It’s been more fun than I ever could have imagined.” She looked at Darcy and gave her a smile tinged with so much sadness.

“So long from the ice palace.” They waved at the camera with their massive goalie gloves.

While the crew cleaned up, Darcy and Natalie thanked the players and wished them luck.

“But not too much luck,” Darcy said, her eyes sparkling.

Natalie rolled her eyes. “Crush ’em.” She tapped gloves with Cox and Lassiter before shuffling toward the bench to get out of her gear.

Lassiter hopped up on the boards next to her.

Darcy reached for her stick but found Cox already had it. She held it out to Darcy.

“Thanks.”

Cox smiled and tapped her stick on the ice. “I was wondering what you were doing after this?”

Was this kid for real? “Excuse me?”

Cox took off one glove and ran her hand through her long brown hair. “Maybe we could get some lunch or something?”

Darcy cocked her head to the side, unable to believe that this kid was hitting on her when her...whatever Natalie was to her was like ten feet away. She pasted on a smile. “That’s really nice of you, but things are really busy right now. I have to get ready for your game.” She paused. “And I’m sure you do, too.”

Cox looked over her shoulder. “Oh shit, are the rumors real? Are you and Carpenter a thing? Jesus, she’s going to kill me, isn’t she?”

Darcy smiled the way she would at an upset toddler. “It’s fine. Thanks for coming and I look forward to the game tomorrow.”

Coxie skated off the ice. “You coming, Lass?”

Lassiter hopped off the boards. “Good to see you, Carpenter.”

“Good luck tomorrow night,” Darcy said, flinging one of her leg pads toward the end of the bench.